The Giants broke out to a lead in this one and Ryan Vogelsong pitched one of his strongest games as a Giant yet leading to an easy win marred by an injury to Marco Scutaro on what many Giants fans thought was a dirty slide by Matt Holliday trying to break up a DP. Key Lines:
Angel Pagan- 2 for 4, HR, BB. BA= .333. One of the keys to the game was getting the top of the order off the beam and Pagan answered that challenge immediately with a first inning HR and getting on base 3 times.
Marco Scutaro- 2 for 3. BA= .500. Scutaro got chop blocked by Matt Holliday on a possible DP ball that appeared to collapse his left ankle and knee. Scooter stayed in the game long enough to avenge that with a bases loaded single that Holliday booted in left-centerfield to clear the bases in the decisive 4'th inning. Scutaro later came out of the game only at the insistence of the training staff. The problem seems to actually be in the hip. X-rays are negative but I read someplace that he is going for an MRI tonight.
Ryan Theriot- 1 for 2. BA= .500. It probably made sense to bring in Theriot for defensive purposes anyway with Scutaro hurting. Riot came through with a very Scutaro-like 2 run single in the 8'th to pad the lead.
Brandon Belt- 2 for 4, 2B. BA= .375. The bottom of the order has played a big role in the offense so far and Belt had a nice game tonight. Nice catch in foul territory early then a dump hit down the 3B line for a double to start the rally in the 4'th and smoked a single up the middle later in the game.
Gregor Blanco- 1 for 3, BB. Blanco again showed nice range in LF, got on base twice and scored twice.
Aubrey Huff- 1 for 1. BA= 1.000. I'm tellin' ya. The Giants need Huff's LH bat off the bench against the extreme righty leaning pitching staff. He even scored from 2B on a single!
Ryan Vogelsong- 7 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 2 BB, 4 K's. ERA= 1.29. Vogie pitched a tremendous game. He got a standing O as he walked off the mound at the end of the 7'th inning every second of it well deserved. Hope Mrs. Vogelsong was there to take it all in. I bet she was crying for this one. Not that I want Vogie to lose that chip on his shoulder, but when he looks back on his career when it's all done, I hope he realizes that he took it all the way to the highest levels you can go in this game and came out a winner. There has gotta be a movie about his story someday.
Jeremy Affledt- 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 0 K. ERA= 0.00. I don't remember Affeldt ever being this dialed in. He faced 3 RH batters in the 8'th and made it look easy.
Sergio Romo- 1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K. ERA= 0.00. Not a Save situation but he hadn't pitched in 3 days and has tomorrow off, so he needed the work. Nice non-stressful inning for him. Little known fact: Romo's 2 seam FB moves almost as much armside as his slider moves gloveside. That was in evidence tonight as he faced a couple of LH batters.
The win for the Giants evens the series at 1 game apiece. The next 3 will be in St Louis. The Giants have done better on the road than at home this year, so it's not inconceivable that they might have the advantage here. Bochy still has a lot of juggling to do to get what he can out of a tired pitching staff. Vogies performance tonight makes that a whole lot easier though.
Matt Cain vs Kyle Lohse in Game 3 Wednesday afternoon. Go Giants!!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
You're welcome, Matt Holiday.
ReplyDeleteGiants got some fire in the belly tonight! Beats watching the Cards running around the bases with cowbells on.
Voggie on the hill and Scoots taking it in the hip, the Giants found tough. And it will take tough to beat the Cards.
Voggie going deep really sets up the Giants pen to be ready for the next three games. And maybe set the Cards pen back some.
All in all the MO feels like it's on Giants side now.
nicole was in the house, but of course fox chose not to capture her on cam...cuz they have no clue how to sell anyone outside of nyc
ReplyDeleteshe didnt tweet at all, so no clue where her emotions were at...but according to amy g, she and vogey shared a moment during the game...something that never happened during the year
i knew he would step up...he still has something to prove
the thrill thinks the slide was legal, but that holliday started too late
too me, holliday started too late on purpose
i dont know what the mlb is waiting for...every other pro league has changed rules to protect players....second base slides were changed because the second baseman had no way to protect himself...but it seems that there are loopholes
pagan and blanco looked great. pence has still gotta learn how to play rf at att...seems nate musta helped carlos last season, cuz he was playing it great...something he didnt do last season
have a feeling that if they feed craw a steady diet of fast balls in st louis, he is gonna go deep
huge problem that pablo cant get around on the inside fast ball...cuz thats all he is seeing
great game...fun series
hope the giants sweep in st louis
Crawford reveals another one of Vogey's pregame rituals: Seems Vogey will only go in the first stall in the clubhouse restroom. Gruffly chased Craw out of there before this one. LOL!!
DeleteI'm fiending for that first baseman of ours! It just feels like he knows he can be a big part of this team putting the hurt on the Cardinals, and now he's finally looking forward to it as opposed to fearing it. Kid's got speed to, didn't know if he'd make it to 2nd on that fly in the fourth, but it wasn't even close.
ReplyDeleteI must say though Doc, I can't remember the last time Huff smoked anything that didn't have tobacco in it That weak pop fly hardly counts as having taken it to the RH pitching, and I think that even though he's a lefty he's hardly a match for any decent pitcher from either side! I want to see him put a rope on something before I declare him a part of the party.
Really hope Scoots is ready by Wednesday, but I wouldn't mind seeing TheRiot get a shot to keep the mojo working for the G's and give Scutaro an extra day or two of rest.
Amazing, series changing effort by Vogletron. That guy is something else, plenty to make another Torres-like Legend out of, so let's keep this thing going!
everyone go to csn bay area and look for the vids with kruk and then the thrill commenting...both are classic...really classic
ReplyDeletei do know that holliday should thank his luck stars that he plays now and not 20 years ago
Checked those out, Bacci. Yup, they were great.
DeleteThat game was amazingly awesome live. Fans were fired up. Sat 15th row first base and Holliday was taken to task all game long. Just saw the replay - everybody took it easy on him. Totally dirty. Kruk and Kuip on the radio took him to task. Football mentality, and bush league. Baseball gods got him.
ReplyDeleteVogelsong gets stronger and hones in the later he pitches. Just a gritty stubborn performance. He made pitches - 0 for 7 with risp for the cards. Fans went nuts for him and it felt good. Vogey got the loudest cheers, his double and the last out of the 7th.
Crawford is swinging the bat well along with belt and blanco - robbed twice. All 3 are playing heads up baseball and great defense. Really fun to watch. Pagan and scutaro lead us, huge key. Hope scoots is ok. The middle of the lineup is ice cold.
Gotta have some good innings from Cain on wends. Great win tonight.
Oh, and a big thank you to Bobby Evans for setting the silly Beltran story straight. He got his boo's as well and deserved them.
Shank, jealous you were able to escape your mom's basement and got some game time...you'r flying into cow town too, no?
DeleteGame time is rare these days, and fun. And much sunnier than Mom's basement.
DeleteI traded in big chips to make the run. Have a newborn, my wife was understanding but a tad stressed. There will be runs to view The Arch and hang out with the bestestest fans in all of baseball. (Note: the best fans in baseball are at 24 Willie Mays Plaza)
Also, Larry Baer does a spectacular job of marketing/corporate partnering. Somehow I think he's around 8 and they're still cranking it up to the eventual 11. I would like it around 5, I understand they need to make bucks, but it does get a bit much. My example? The 7th inning stretch is sponsored. Always Be Closing Larry, Always Be Closing.
From the amount of swag everybody rolls with alone, the Giants are raking it in.
I'm tired as hell. No more runs, family time. Not going to St. Louis fo sho. Buck and McCarver? Oh no, I gotta get my mom's basement equipped with the nerd alert knbr internet feed and mlb.tv or something. Help!
DeleteJust wanted to note that Vogelsong said that he was a little off mechanically early but once he felt right, he just kept it going for the rest of the game, so it wasn't really getting stronger, per se, though perhaps that was part of it, but that he was in the right groove going forward from, like, the 3rd inning, if I recall right.
DeleteYeah, surprised that Beltran is showing the chip on his shoulder with his lie of a story that was debunked when it first came out and debunked again this time. Too bad none of the reporters called him on that, I would have loved to see his reaction to a question like that from the media.
Also goes to show that no matter how good a hitter might be, you can't win if the other hitters aren't hitting, he had 2 hits but Vogelsong only allowed 4 in total. Maybe the Naysayers can now understand why the team chose to keep Affeldt and Lopez and not pursue Beltran (probably not, though, and they probably still think that we should have picked Smoak over Posey ;^). Maybe they can find it within themselves to finally thank Sabean after this season (but probably not...)
Oh the comforts of moms basement!! I'm stil not sure why melky isn't being considered as a replacement for scoots or even outright put in this lineup instead of huff. At the very least he could provide late defensive replacement and be a pinch runner. Lohse will be tough tomorrow night I hope cainer is feelin good.
ReplyDeleteTheriot was actually hitting pretty well for us for two months, after his DL to get healthy - .311/.360/.372/.732 - but his scuffling then opened the door for Scutaro to take over.
ReplyDeleteGiven how he recovered again, I believe that Theriot was hurting again. The rest from starting got him healthy again, I think. He hit .360/.385/.440/.825 in 26 PA once Bochy gave him some rest, starting with his first start at 2B after being benched. That gave him roughly 2 weeks of rest, except for a few PH opportunities.
I would not be surprised if Bochy gives Theriot the start on Wednesday against Lohse has he has killer numbers in a good number of ABs while Scutaro had scuffled before against Lohse. Though I could see Bochy spin it as giving Scutaro a rest after that illegal block, to give his team a reminder and extra jolt, to perform well again.
I like that bait and switch. Theriot getting a quick shot while resting Scoots sounds like a good plan. Bring him in late for a clutch pinch hit.
DeleteGints have to string hits against Lohse. He is a squirrelly type, he will give up hits. He has hit his high in a lot of categories though, including K/BB, IP, Ks and WHIP.
Lohse is one of those pitchers who look like they should be easy to hit and sometimes are, but who give the Giants fits.
Delete